Jamail Center for Legal Research
Tarlton Law Library

South Court

William Carlos Williams
wrote
of sweetness
of ripe plums
but what he saw
was there
beside the contagious hospital

I don't go there

beside the criminal courts
however
we had seen
a hawk alighting on a lamppost
clutching a half-eaten snake
Quetzalcuatl
against the pale blue spring twilight sky

mortality is always in your face

in the basement
in the lock-up
there's a sign
a drawing of a man
hanging from a noose
in a circle with a slash across it
"No Suicides"

there had been prior bad incidents

On Teaching Gang Law Seminars

we only talk about trying
to clean up the messes left behind
when children too young to drive
spend their after school hours
shooting at each other
with real guns

we never talk
about how young they look
sitting in court
skin still baby fine and tight
under the shaved hair
under the tattoos
under the shackles

The Meaning of Stories

On this
the stories are always
very specific:
catching the firebird is not a task
for the timid
or easily burnt

injuries result that way
caution is required
and a good measure of cunning and luck
dispensed by a benevolent deity
and not to be taken lightly

nor are the instructions
to be taken lightly
deviations are not permitted
mistakes can be fatal
and second chances are not allowed

yet for some reason in the story
they always get a second chance
and a third
they make the same mistakes over
and over again and every time
the gray wolf's there to save them

what are the stories trying to tell us?
pay no attention to the warnings?
make mistakes
forget the rules

and if you're lucky
someone will appear
and save you?

or is the message simply
don't try this at home
you will burn your fingers
your mistakes will be fatal
there is no gray wolf in your forest

Park La Brea Tarpits

returned to the tar pits today again
stood pressed against the fence
across the street the billboards stand
poised to grab pedestrians who scurry past

I watch another bubble burst

while February rain clouds from the west
crawl like purple sea monsters
toward unsuspecting hills

Summer Solstice

there is a little death that happens
every year this time

expansion stops
and for one brief painful moment
there is perfect balance
before the year slides
toward the contraction of winter

I too begin to withdraw
turn inward
explore the pathways of the soul

there are labyrinths enough in me
to fill the wanderlust
of many winter months
mazes enough
to lose myself for an eternity
of winter nights

at the peak of summer
I feel winter in me
and darkness
and cold

in the heat of summer
I long for a warm fire
a deep chair
for shelter from the winter storms

Fishing for Li Po's Moon 

trying 
to write poetry 
is like fishing 
for moonlight 
with nets 

there's something 
about the rocking 
motion of the boat
the whoosh
of nets through darkness
the way 
that moonlight
fragments 
on the water 

that almost 
makes you think
that this time
this particular 
time unlike all 
the other times
you'll have something 
to show for the effort 

some impression
of accomplishment
something
more than a wet net

something more than moonlight 
fragmented 
reflecting on water

Afterward 

we are all born of the stuff 
forged in cataclysms
of dying stars 

what exactly is it 
about us 
that dies? 

Katya Giritsky was born in Hong Kong of Russian parents who caught the last flight out of Shanghai before the Red Army took the city. She obtained her BA (English '70) and her JD ('74) from the University of Southern California. Her poetry has appeared in various journals and she has published six chapbooks of poetry, three with Swan Duckling Press. For most of the last 30 years, she has been employed as a Deputy Public Defender in Orange County, California.
"South Court was first published in her chapbook, Sometimes Love Is Best Enjoyed Alone (Swan Duckling Press, 1998). "The Meaning of Stories," "Park La Brea Tarpits," "Summer Solstice," and "On Teaching Gang Law Seminars" first appeared in Giritsky's, Turning Back and Back Again (Swan Duckling Press, 1999). "Summer Soltice" and "The Meaning of Stories" also appear in Giritsky's Girltalk (FarStarFire Press, 1999). "Afterward" and "Fishing for Li Po's Moon" (under the title, "Write Effort") appear in Giritsky's Like Waiting for February 30th (FarStarPress, 2001).